bitchy | Prince Philip, apparently: ‘One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them’

I don’t know how many times they’re going to churn through these same stories, but these pieces have never proven what they think they’re proving. Apparently, royal biographer Andrew Lownie has repeated the same piece of gossip that Prince Philip looked down his nose at then-Meghan Markle when she and Prince Harry were first dating and engaged. Philip hated her on sight because Meghan was an American and an actress. Of course, we’ve also been told that Philip hated Meghan because she reminded him of a woman he barely knew: Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. These people are still rushing around to describe how all of the Windsors hated Meghan on sight really proves how they all “welcomed” Meghan and gave her all of the support she needed to thrive, correct?

When Prince Harry announced his plans to wed Meghan Markle in November 2017, he was hopeful that the Royal Family would welcome their joyous news. But the prince was met with a rather curt response from his forthright grandfather, Prince Philip, who issued the stern warning: ‘One steps out with actresses, one doesn’t marry them.’

Writing in his tell-all book Entitled, Andrew Lownie revealed Philip’s reluctant feelings towards the Suits star entering the royal fold – unsurprising, perhaps, given that the pair had embarked on a whirlwind 16-month courtship before Harry got down on one knee.

Meanwhile, according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward writing in her book My Mother And I, Philip was ‘one of the very few wary’ of being charmed by Meghan, 44, in the early days of her relationship with Harry, 41. Philip was also said to have thought it was ‘uncanny’ how much she reminded him of Wallis Simpson – the American socialite who King Edward VIII abdicated to marry. As such, the prince nicknamed Meghan ‘DOW’ after Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor.

Philip also wasn’t the only royal to have attempted to caution Harry about the pace of his relationship with Meghan, with his brother, Prince William, said to have felt ‘nervous’ about their upcoming nuptials. In January 2023 Harry discussed William’s warning to take it slow in his memoir Spare, writing: ‘”It’s too fast”, he’d told me. “Too soon”. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about me even dating Meg.’

However, Harry dismissed his family’s concerns, with it claimed that he believed he had to marry her quickly because her ‘biological clock was ticking’ as she was almost 35 years old, according to royal author Tina Brown. Despite their fairytale wedding in May 2018, the Sussexes love story quickly took a sharp turn when the duchess realised that the life of a princess was far from what it was made out to be in the books.

[From The Daily Mail]

This is what gets me every time: “Despite their fairytale wedding in May 2018, the Sussexes love story quickly took a sharp turn when the duchess realised that the life of a princess was far from what it was made out to be in the books.” All of the people who had “concerns” about Meghan and “warned” Harry not to marry her were not concerned about Harry, or whether the marriage would work out. The survival of the Sussex marriage shows that Harry and Meghan were and are in love and they’ve built a beautiful life together with their two children. All of these “concerns” were about Meghan fitting into an institution which was hostile to her from day one, because the institution was full of bigots, anti-Americans and racists. Philip and Prince William weren’t concerned that Harry was marrying a woman he loved after a “whirlwind 16-month courtship” – they were plainly worried that a woman like Meghan wouldn’t be weak and compromised enough to take their bullsh-t.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red and SussexRoyal IG.